Life is better with lists.

Overpromising and Underdelivering

Overpromising and underdelivering. I fear this may be my greatest weakness. This and winking. And whistling. I’m also really bad at push ups…..and pullups….. Ok before this turns into a list of my failures, let me get back on track. But before I can tell you the story, I must tell you the back story to the story.

I lived in Texas from April 2017-May 2018. I knew going in this would be a temporary living situation because I was only there while my husband completed part of his training for the military. So when he got orders to relocate to Florida, I knew I needed to get my ass in gear and complete my Texas Bucket List of places to see and things to do before moving. So that is the back story, now the story: Of the 5 things on my list, I only completed 3: Texas rodeo, Enchanted Rock, and Tubing the Guadelupe River. Alas, I was not able to make my way to Austin or Hamilton Pool before moving.

Reflecting on this failure, I think about some of the other goals I’ve set for myself for this year:

travel back to Latvia and take a language immersion course,

bring my list of states traveled up to 30,

learn how to drive stick shift.

And I am falling short on every. single. one. I accepted a teaching job for next school year in Florida and will begin work in early August preventing me from being able to go to Latvia and I think I’m only going to be able to hit 28 states by the end of the year. So, I really need to find someone in Florida with a manual car I can learn how to drive in.

Don’t take my griping as a need to cheer me up. I’m not really that upset or beating myself up about this stuff. Life happens, and despite not being able to complete some of these things, I have had some of the MOST AMAZING experiences this year and literally have so, soooo much to look forward to.

No I’m not going to Latvia, but I am going to Amsterdam with my best friend instead. No I’m not going to make it to 30 states, but I explored several states last month (will write about those in future posts) and I did so completely on my own. At the risk of sounding silly, I have learned so much about myself and how I want to live life through these adventures.

I have learned how much my identity depends on independence, both financially and professionally. I have learned how diversity, awareness, and acceptance can make a very big difference in my life and also a community. I have learned how little patience I have for small-mindedness. I have learned, no matter how many times I try, I will never like orange juice-even if you try to fancy it up with champagne.

Lots of life lessons learned. I fear I am becoming wise in my old age. The closer I get to thirty, the more comfortable I become with who I am-who’da thought that would’ve happened?